If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Prolonged Hammocking = Curvature of the spine?

Howdy. Just wanted I throw it out there for discussion. I've been reading a post from an AT hiker who has been on the trail for over 6 months now, hammocking most of the time. His last post said that he thinks that perhaps his hammocking may be contributing to curving of his spine (what ever he meant by that)

I'm a former full timer (for a little less than a year) and while I don't have any scientific/medical facts I do think that I have issues that are not caused by the hammock but are not averted due to the use of a hammock. Let me explain...

I have scoliosis and a bad back (from injuries) but sleeping in the hammock gave me a good nights sleep and a fairly pain free morning. I dove into the hammock thing because it was so good on my back and so comfortable in general. I believe (remember that this is just personal opinion) that the reason hammocks are so good for so many people's backs is because it doesn't cause muscle pain, which is what most folks have a problem with.

Fast forward through about a year of full time hammocking to February of this year. I had a very painful bulging disc in my back that is in an area that I have had issues (but no pain until Feb) with for many years and is probably completely due to my scoliosis but was brought on by lack of stretches/exercise and sub-optimal posture. This is where I think the hammock didn't help even as much as a bed would... it couldn't give me the structural support and manipulation to help recover my bad disc. I eventually started sleeping on the floor and after a couple of months of severe pain it started to get better.

When I finally started sleeping in my hammock again it took less than a week for me to start feeling the disc bulge again. That's when I formulated my hypothesis and have been sleeping on the floor (on a thin pad... but I'm actually comfortable... who knew) ever since.

Like I said, I have no proof other than a bulging disc from a curved spine that seems to get worse when I sleep in a hammock. Fortunately I can still do a few days here and there in the hammock.

I guess to summarize my long winded post: I think that the hammock is good if you have muscular pain but might not be helpful if you have skeletal/structural problems. Whether the hammock causes the problem or not, I really don't know (my guess is that a hammock wouldn't cause a problem but if a problem is already there then at times a hammock might not be a solution and could potentially make the problem worse).

Almost 2.5 years fulltimeing and no problems whatsoever. I do sleep on the diagonal but on the back or left side and recently even on the right some. Spent a few nights this summer both going to and coming from Maine in an RV. High dollar memory foam mattress and I was almost crippled every morning. Spent 2 .5 months in the hammock behind the RV thru the summer and all was well. Unfortunately there are a number of hammock hangers out there that haven't found the Forum and the wealth of information here.

Most of us end up poorer here but richer for being here. Olddog, Fulltime hammocker, 365 nights a year.

Lying (slightly) diagonally in a gathered-end hammock may reduce the curve, but it is still a long way from 'flat' (flat=lying on the floor), as has been discussed a lot in other threads.

Hundreds of pics here demonstrate this - I've seen way more 'knees and feet in the air' pics than I needed!

We're lying on a stretchy bed, and most of our weight is in the middle of our bodies, so the curve is the result...

Not sure why your pointing this out since I didn't say anything about 'flat' or even flatlike.

I did mention, however, that lying in the hammock that gives the "banana look" is also giving the body a curve in the hammock, eluding that the "pronounced" curve may not be the best for the body and for comfort.

Some like a very hard surface, floor or board like, others a very soft surface and everything in between.

I did mention that the diaganal lay in a hammock may be the best use of the hammock for comfort.

Of course, not for all. My wife loves to rest but cannot sleep in a gathered end due to her leg and knee discomfort. I think a bridge may be in her future.